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Musings, rants and raves on the world of shopping carts and e-commerce, fortified with related business, legal and economic news, as well as announcements about my work on Zen Cart. Brought to you by That Software Guy.

I was thinking about this in the context of wifi at Starbucks. Now I love Starbucks coffee, and in fact, I prefer it to pretty much any other substitute. It’s a premium product at a premium price, and I accept that. What I can’t accept is their use of T-Mobile, which requires you to pay $30/month to use their wifi while drinking their coffee. The less-costly substitutes (free wifi at Panera, for instance), are so plentiful that it just seems silly to pay to use wifi at Starbucks.

Now I know that some locations (NY and Chicago) need to have a pay policy to keep students from loafing around there all day and driving away paying customers … but I live in Tampa, and the stores aren’t that crowded. So what’s a good solution? Would $10/month be tolerable? How about $1/hr?

Howard Schultz has just re-taken the top job at the java vendor; perhaps he’d be open to creative suggestions. A thirty dollar per month recurring charge just seems way too steep.

My boss never misses an opportunity to praise someone in public. And I’m not talking the typical butter up, either – he’ll be saying “Scott this” and “Scott that,” and I’ll be looking around making sure there’s not another Scott in the room. He is, in the words of Charles M. Schwab, “hearty in his approbation and lavish in his praise.”

So why is this so rare? I’ve only worked for one boss who delighted in criticizing people in public; all the other ones have been completely silent. Is it insecurity or a limited pie mindset that makes people hesitant to praise their subordinates? Is it just laziness?

If you have staff, take some time to praise them. Publicly and sincerely. Be hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise.